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A sole leader emerged after two rounds at the Sportland NRW Cup. Dinara Wagner beat Israeli GM Alexander Bagrationi with black to become the only player who kicked off the 10-player event with back-to-back wins.
Bagrationi’s 56.Qc2 was the decisive mistake.
Keeping the queen on the f-file while creating threats of a perpetual check with 56.Qf5+ was the way to go in this position. Instead, after the text move, Wagner immediately grabbed the initiative with 56...Qf7+ 57.Ke1 Qf3.
Bagrationi realized that there was no way to save the game after allowing the infiltration of the black queen and resigned the game after playing 58.c6.
The other decisive game of the day in the single round-robin saw top seed Karthik Venkataram bouncing back from his round-1 loss by inflicting a second defeat on Arthur De Winter.
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | ||
| 1 | WGM | Wagner, Dinara | 2447 | 2 | 2 | |
| 2 | IM | Souleidis, Georgios | 2419 | 1,5 | 1 | |
| 3 | IM | Köllner, Ruben Gideon | 2429 | 1,5 | 1 | |
| 4 | FM | Besou, Hussain | 2325 | 1,5 | 1 | |
| IM | Petrovskiy, Vadim | 2423 | 1,5 | 1 | ||
| 6 | GM | Karthik Venkataraman, | 2548 | 1 | 1 | |
| 7 | FM | Schneider, Jana | 2326 | 0,5 | 0 | |
| GM | Saltaev, Mihail | 2462 | 0,5 | 0 | ||
| 9 | FM | De Winter, Arthur | 2378 | 0 | 0 | |
| GM | Bagrationi, Alexander | 2454 | 0 | 0 |
Full technical information on Chess-Results
In the A-Open, the top three seeds kicked off the event with consecutive wins, as Matthias Bluebaum, Alexander Donchenko and Michael Adams all belong to the 35-player pack sharing first place with 2 out of 2.
Donchenko got to play a nice combination against Adelard Bai on Sunday.
15.Nxf7, with a discovered attack against the rook on b8, gives White an edge in all the ensuing forcing lines. The game lasted 27 moves, as Donchenko was merciless in converting his advantage. The German grandmaster later shared his thoughts on the game with press officer Patrick Zelbel (in German).
| Bo. | No. | Name | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | No. |
| 1 | 39 | Parvanyan,Ashot, | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | Blübaum,Matthias, | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | Donchenko,Alexander, | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | Bai,Adelard, | 40 |
| 3 | 41 | Meins,Gerlef, | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | Adams,Michael, | 3 |
| 4 | 4 | Ponomariov,Ruslan, | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | Harikrishnan.A.Ra, | 44 |
| 5 | 6 | Aryan Chopra, | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | Colpe,Malte, | 52 |
| 6 | 43 | Akesson,Ralf, | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | Svane,Rasmus, | 7 |
| 7 | 8 | Mendonca,Leon Luke, | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | Garner,Isaac, | 56 |
| 8 | 45 | Souhardo Basak, | 1 | 0 - 1 | 1 | Svane,Frederik, | 9 |
| 9 | 49 | Niedbala,Bartlomiej, | 1 | ½ - ½ | 1 | Safarli,Eltaj, | 11 |
| 10 | 12 | Prohaszka,Peter, | 1 | 1 - 0 | 1 | Niermann,Tristan, | 58 |
| Bo. | No. | Name | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | No. |
| 1 | 1 | Blübaum,Matthias, | 2 | 2 | Raja Rithvik R, | 22 | |
| 2 | 23 | Dudin,Gleb, | 2 | 2 | Donchenko,Alexander, | 2 | |
| 3 | 3 | Adams,Michael, | 2 | 2 | Janzelj,Tim, | 29 | |
| 4 | 26 | Feuerstack,Aljoscha, | 2 | 2 | Aryan Chopra, | 6 | |
| 5 | 30 | Willow,Jonah B, | 2 | 2 | Mendonca,Leon Luke, | 8 | |
| 6 | 9 | Svane,Frederik, | 2 | 2 | Buckels,Valentin, | 33 | |
| 7 | 32 | Guo,Arthur, | 2 | 2 | Prohaszka,Peter, | 12 | |
| 8 | 13 | Laurent-Paoli,Pierre, | 2 | 2 | Muthaiah AL, | 35 | |
| 9 | 15 | Kobo,Ori, | 2 | 2 | Wadsworth,Matthew J, | 37 | |
| 10 | 17 | Pranav Anand, | 2 | 2 | Dolzhykova,Kateryna, | 68 |
Full technical information on Chess-Results
